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Reference

Compendium

Ingredients for spellwork: their formal and folk names, categories, deities and forms, with the sources behind them.

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    313 ingredients

    313 ingredients

    NewCaution
    Botanical Name
    Betula pendula

    Birch

    The silver birch is a slender deciduous tree of the birch family, Betulaceae, named for the white bark that peels from its trunk in papery flakes. It grows wild from western Europe to Siberia, Mongolia and Xinjiang, south to the Caucasus and northern Iran, and in the uplands of northern Morocco; as a pioneer it is among the first trees to take hold on bare or burnt ground. It is the national tree of Finland, where bunches of its leafy twigs are used to beat the skin in the sauna, and Grieve notes that Coleridge called it the Lady of the Woods. In northern and central Europe the tree stood for birth and for rebirth after death, and in Scandinavia it was thought to house the spirits of ancestors; Siberian shamans used it in rites of purification and initiation. Branches set before Swedish houses at Walpurgis, or crossed twigs over English doorways, kept witches and enchantment away, though in medieval France witches were said to fly on birch and work weather magic with it. Cunningham counts it a cleansing tree, used to drive out spirits and to guard against lightning and the evil eye, and says the witch's broom was traditionally made of its twigs.

    Caution

    AHPA safety class 1 and interaction class A: no contraindications, precautions, drug interactions or side effects are known, and it is noted as a diuretic. No concern was identified for use in pregnancy or while nursing, though safety in either has not been firmly proven. Cunningham marks it as recognised safe.

    Forms

    • Bark
    • Leaf
    • Sap
    • Wood

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Water
    Celestial Bodies
    Venus, Jupiter, Moon, Sun
    Zodiac Signs
    Capricorn, Sagittarius
    Deities
    Thor (Norse), Cerridwen (Welsh), Dagda (Irish), Freya (Norse), Frigg (Norse), Lugh (Irish)

    Folk Names

    • Beithe
    • Bereza
    • Berke
    • Beth
    • Bouleau
    • Common Birch
    • European White Birch
    • Lady of the Woods
    • Silver Birch
    • Warty Birch
    • Weeping Birch

    Categories

    • Ancestor Work
    • Banishing
    • Clarity
    • Cleansing
    • Divination
    • Fertility
    • Healing
    • Inspiration
    • Intuition
    • Love
    • Protection
    • Purification
    • Wisdom
    See in Compendium